WHAT :O again??? last week 2 times :O
i remember Umaga also did that once for the hurricanes....where he dropped the ball...and cullen as well
, i think if cullen scored that try they would have went through to the play offs that year...think that was against the warathas, soon after that culley left for the NH
TRF_nicknz can you remember that?
I actually remember Cullen dropping the ball over the line twice that season... though I may be confused as they did replay the incident a lot
Have to agree. There were quite a few infringments from the Highlanders, and the ones that were eventually picked up, never really went any further than a penalty. I'm a fan of Vinny Munro, but not his greatest game. With that in mind, the Hurricanes were hardly stellar. Someone needs to spend some time teaching the Canes how to not drop a ball on the oppositions try line. At least Piri Weepu looked good on his first match back, was suprised with how good some of his passes with under pressure, and his leg didn't look like it was giving him any trouble.
Cowan's a prat. Dad a very good game under the conditions, but such a prat.
I personally didn't think that there were that many Highlanders infringements in the 'red-zone', so didn't think anything more than penalties were warranted. Then again, I am a biased Highlanders supporter, rather than a (possibly biased) Hurricanes supporter. The only infringement that I thought the Highlanders were very lucky to get away with was the deliberate knock-down by Poki, when it looked like the Canes had an overlap and were likely going to score. I think these knock-downs should be penalty offenses whether the player is trying to catch the ball or not (and in this case Poki didn't even look like he was trying to catch the ball). I'd also be happy to see these sort of offenses result in yellow cards as well for professional fouls, as I can't stand it when a promising attack is disrupted by a defensive player caught out of position sticking their arm out.
Overall I thought the Highlanders deserved the win for their strong defensive play, much as the Blues deserved their win over the Highlanders a couple of weeks ago for an equally impressive defensive display. I thought Broadhurst and Jack Lam had strong games for the Canes, but the standout Canes forward was Victor Vito. He was strong with the ball in hand (especially off the base of the scrum), making one particularly impressive line break. He was also the go-to man in the lineout, and was strong on defense and at the breakdown.
I thought Chris Eaton's service was poor, and his lack of a quality kicking game hurt the Canes. It was good to see Weepu back, though I was surprised to see him subbed on at halfback rather than into the front-row
His distribution wasn't really any better than Eaton's, but his kicking game was far superior. Though he is clearly nowhere near his best I think the Canes should start him next week, to bring him up to speed as soon as possible. Despite the poor ball Cruden got, he had a pretty solid game; I was happy to see him slot both his kicks at goal and get some good distance on his punts, but wish he would stop doing chip kicks inside his own 22! Nonu tried hard but couldn't break the line, while I thought Hayward was quite impressive again, particularly with his tactical kicking. It's frustrating as a Highlanders supporter to see Hayward play good rugby for the Canes, as he never played well when he was part of the Highlanders over the last couple of years. None of the outside backs had much ball to work with, but Andre Taylor did impress with his huge punting. When Jane returns the back three should be Gear, Taylor, Jane, but I wonder whether they will consider playing Jane on the wing and keeping Taylor at fullback to take advantage of Taylor's kicking game.
Mo Schwalgher was good for the Highlanders (lineout throwing aside), and I thought Bekhuis had a very strong game at lock. Tom Donnelly was pretty anonymous in my opinion, apart from when he was giving away silly penalties... he certainly didn't look like an AB's lock. Nasi Manu again impressed with the ball, but his hands still let him down. You know he is going to make good metres whenever he gets the ball, you just don't know whether he is going to still have the ball by the end of his run!
Cowan was the man of the match for me. He really controlled the game in the wet conditions with his pin-point kicking, and made a number of breaks round the base of the ruck with his strong running. I agree with Nickdnz that Cowan is a prat, but he's the sort of prat that you love to have in your own team! Sopoaga again had a mixed game, making some nice clean breaks, but dropping the ball a couple of times. His goal-kicking wasn't great (3/5), but it was good enough to get the win. The rest of the Highlanders backs where largely confined to defensive roles, which they did very well. Ben Smith again stood out. Though he didn't get many chances with the ball in hand he still looked class whether putting clearing the ball to touch, or acting as the last line off defense. It was interesting to see that Smith spent a lot of time up in the line on defense marking Ma'a Nonu. He did great job closing down Nonu, as he did against the Crusaders midfield a few weeks ago...
